Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and more invest in Formula One's Alpine

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs and golfer Rory McIlroy have signed on via Otro Capital and Apex Group's $218 million investment in the team. They join Hollywood investors Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney and Michael B. Jordan on Alpine's investor list.

"We have all seen the growth in the sport over the last six or seven years, and over the last two and three it has been really sustained growth," Apex CEO Antonio Cacorino told the Guardian. "It has changed the sport for good, we believe F1's momentum is here to stay and this was the perfect deal.

"F1 has gone beyond diehard petrolhead fans, it's a sport for the masses. All over the world people are watching it — and few sports have that."

With their investment, Mahomes, Kelce and their peers don't just earn capital gains on the project — they also open up cross-promotional sponsorship opportunities between F1 and leagues like the NFL.

While Alpine's driver pairing of Gasly and Ocon is promising, it needs all the help it can get from its new investors. Alpine is currently ranked sixth of 10 teams in F1 and hasn't won a race since the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. Its best race finish this season was third, achieved once by Gasly in the Netherlands and once by Ocon in Monaco.

Otro Capital and Apex hope that their celebrity investors will help lift Alpine back up the ever-competitive F1 standings.

"These are best in class investors, athletes, entertainers and entrepreneurs," said Otro's Alec Schneiner. "They are all committed to elevating the Alpine F1 team."

Alpine will run its next race this weekend in Austin at the United States Grand Prix.